Bethesda North Hospital holds "active shooter" training exercise

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - For the first time, a team of local health care providers held an active shooter live training drill.

The team conducting the drill at the emergency department of Bethesda North Hospital say the goal is, hopefully, that they will never actually need to do what they learned about on Wednesday.

Early Wednesday morning, those participating team members began meeting to prepare for the first ever live active shooter training exercise.

They set up the scenario several days ago which is, as TriHealth Director of Corporate Security Ronald Morris describes: “A husband who feels his wife is playing on him, and he's angry, he comes in and shoots two people…”

The “victims” are people who were made up, complete with real injuries. They walk to a secure part of the hospital and take their places. The medical staff will need to find them and transport them to the emergency room department without putting other patients and providers in jeopardy.

“Unfortunately most people that die from an active shooter, die of bleeding, so it's gonna be quick extrication, quick bleeding control,” said Katie Dunigan, the trauma program manager.

Emergency medical services in the community are notified and on standby for a dangerous scenario.

The goal is real time and everything happens in about 30 minutes.

“And then after it will be about three and a half hours of assessing, what is the ongoing operations of the hospital, so that we can, continue to sustain the level of the care that is needed,” said Jason Niehaus of TriHealth operations. “We will take what we've learned and make our program even better.”

While the team admits they've had no immediate threat, the training is still critical.

“If we assume that a risk doesn't exist, then we are already unprepared to respond to this type of situation,” said Morris.

The goal is to continue to update this information, as they learn and observe more again, something they hope they will never need, but better to be prepared than not.